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Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 3, Paragraph 3, SubSection 3, Heading 5 548 The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him. 269 To those who turn to him in faith, he grants what they ask. 270 So miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his Father's works; they bear witness that he is the Son of God. 271 But his miracles can also be occasions for "offence"; 272 they are not intended to satisfy people's curiosity or desire for magic Despite his evident miracles some people reject Jesus; he is even accused of acting by the power of demons. 273 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 4, Paragraph 1 574 From the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, certain Pharisees and partisans of Herod together with priests and scribes agreed together to destroy him. 317 Because of certain acts of his expelling demons, forgiving sins, healing on the sabbath day, his novel interpretation of the precepts of the Law regarding purity, and his familiarity with tax collectors and public sinners 318-some ill- intentioned persons suspected Jesus of demonic possession. 319 He is accused of blasphemy and false prophecy, religious crimes which the Law punished with death by stoning. 320 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 4, Paragraph 1 575 Many of Jesus' deeds and words constituted a "sign of contradiction", 321 but more so for the religious authorities in Jerusalem, whom the Gospel according to John often calls simply "the Jews", 322 than for the ordinary People of God. 323 To be sure, Christ's relations with the Pharisees were not exclusively polemical. Some Pharisees warn him of the danger he was courting; 324 Jesus praises some of them, like the scribe of Mark 12:34, and dines several times at their homes. 325 Jesus endorses some of the teachings imparted by this religious elite of God's people: the resurrection of the dead, 326 certain forms of piety (almsgiving, fasting and prayer), 327 the custom of addressing God as Father, and the centrality of the commandment to love God and neighbour. 328 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 4, Paragraph 1, SubSection 1 582 Going even further, Jesus perfects the dietary law, so important in Jewish daily life, by revealing its pedagogical meaning through a divine interpretation: "Whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him. . . (Thus he declared all foods clean.). . . What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts. . ." 346 In presenting with divine authority the definitive interpretation of the Law, Jesus found himself confronted by certain teachers of the Law who did not accept his interpretation of the Law, guaranteed though it was by the divine signs that accompanied it. 347 This was the case especially with the sabbath laws, for he recalls, often with rabbinical arguments, that the sabbath rest is not violated by serving God and neighbour, 348 which his own healings did. Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 4, Paragraph 1, SubSection 2 583 Like the prophets before him Jesus expressed the deepest respect for the Temple in Jerusalem. It was in the Temple that Joseph and Mary presented him forty days after his birth. 349 At the age of twelve he decided to remain in the Temple to remind his parents that he must be about his Father's business. 350 He went there each year during his hidden life at least for Passover. 351 His public ministry itself was patterned by his pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the great Jewish feasts. 352 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 4, Paragraph 1, SubSection 3 589 Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his merciful conduct toward sinners with God's own attitude toward them. 367 He went so far as to hint that by sharing the table of sinners he was admitting them to the messianic banquet. 368 But it was most especially by forgiving sins that Jesus placed the religious authorities of Israel on the horns of a dilemma. Were they not entitled to demand in consternation, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 369 By forgiving sins Jesus either is blaspheming as a man who made himself God's equal, or is speaking the truth and his person really does make present and reveal God's name. 370 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 4, Paragraph 1, SubSection 3 594 Jesus performed acts, such as pardoning sins, that manifested him to be the Saviour God himself (cf. Jn 5:16-18). Certain Jews, who did not recognize God made man (cf. Jn 1:14), saw in him only a man who made himself God (Jn 10:33), and judged him as a blasphemer. Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 4, Paragraph 2, SubSection 3, Heading 5 612 The cup of the New Covenant, which Jesus anticipated when he offered himself at the Last Supper, is afterwards accepted by him from his Father's hands in his agony in the garden at Gethsemani, 434 making himself "obedient unto death". Jesus prays: "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. . ." 435 Thus he expresses the horror that death represented for his human nature. Like ours, his human nature is destined for eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly exempt from sin, the cause of death. 436 Above all, his human nature has been assumed by the divine person of the "Author of life", the "Living One". 437 By accepting in his human will that the Father's will be done, he accepts his death as redemptive, for "he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree." 438 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 5, Paragraph 1 635 Christ went down into the depths of death so that "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." 484 Jesus, "the Author of life", by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage." 485 Henceforth the risen Christ holds "the keys of Death and Hades", so that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth." 486 Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. . . He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their God and the son of Eve. . . "I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. . . I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead." 487 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 7, SubSection 2 679 Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgement on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. He "acquired" this right by his cross. The Father has given "all judgement to the Son". 586 Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself. 587 By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love. 588 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 3, Article 8, SubSection 3 702 From the beginning until "the fullness of time," 60 the joint mission of the Father's Word and Spirit remains hidden, but it is at work. God's Spirit prepares for the time of the Messiah. Neither is fully revealed but both are already promised, to be watched for and welcomed at their manifestation. So, for this reason, when the Church reads the Old Testament, she searches there for what the Spirit, "who has spoken through the prophets," wants to tell us about Christ. 61 By "prophets" the faith of the Church here understands all whom the Holy Spirit inspired in the living proclamation and in the composition of the sacred books, both of the Old and the New Testaments. Jewish tradition distinguishes first the Law (the five first books or Pentateuch), then the Prophets (our historical and prophetic books) and finally the Writings (especially the wisdom literature, in particular the Psalms). 62 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 3, Article 8, SubSection 4, Heading 1 719 John the Baptist is "more than a prophet." 94 In him, the Holy Spirit concludes his speaking through the prophets. John completes the cycle of prophets begun by Elijah. 95 He proclaims the imminence of the consolation of Israel; he is the "voice" of the Consoler who is coming. 96 As the Spirit of truth will also do, John "came to bear witness to the light." 97 In John's sight, the Spirit thus brings to completion the careful search of the prophets and fulfills the longing of the angels. 98 "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.... Behold, the Lamb of God." 99 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 3, Article 9, Paragraph 3, SubSection 4, Heading 1 859 Jesus unites them to the mission he received from the Father. As "the Son can do nothing of his own accord," but receives everything from the Father who sent him, so those whom Jesus sends can do nothing apart from him, 371 from whom they received both the mandate for their mission and the power to carry it out. Christ's apostles knew that they were called by God as "ministers of a new covenant," "servants of God," "ambassadors for Christ," "servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." 372 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 3, Article 11, SubSection 1, Heading 1 994 But there is more. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: "I am the Resurrection and the life." 544 It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood. 545 Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life, 546 announcing thereby his own Resurrection, though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the "sign of Jonah," 547 the sign of the temple: he announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on the third day. 548 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 3, Article 11, SubSection 1, Heading 2 998 Who will rise? All the dead will rise, "those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment." 552 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 3, Article 12, SubSection 5 1038 The resurrection of all the dead, "of both the just and the unjust," 623 will precede the Last Judgment. This will be "the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear Son of man's voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment." 624 Then Christ will come "in his glory, and all the angels with him .... Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.... And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." 625 Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 3, Article 12, SubSection 6, Heading 1 1063 In the book of the prophet Isaiah, we find the expression "God of truth" (literally "God of the Amen"), that is, the God who is faithful to his promises: "He who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth amen." 647 Our Lord often used the word "Amen," sometimes repeated, 648 to emphasize the trustworthiness of his teaching, his authority founded on God's truth. Part 2, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 4, SubSection 9 1470 In this sacrament, the sinner, placing himself before the merciful judgment of God, anticipates in a certain way the judgment to which he will be subjected at the end of his earthly life. For it is now, in this life, that we are offered the choice between life and death, and it is only by the road of conversion that we can enter the Kingdom, from which one is excluded by grave sin. 79 In converting to Christ through penance and faith, the sinner passes from death to life and "does not come into judgment." 80 Part 4, Section 2, Article 3, SubSection 3 2824 In Christ, and through his human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once for all. Jesus said on entering into this world: "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God." 99 Only Jesus can say: "I always do what is pleasing to him." 100 In the prayer of his agony, he consents totally to this will: "not my will, but yours be done." 101 For this reason Jesus "gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." 102 "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." 103 Return